A good amount of Gen V's Gym TMs annoy me. I love these games but
man. Let's talk about them.
No complaints about Work Up in either game. One of the best first Gym TMs out there (I never cared about Stealth Rock in its heyday because I never played competitively until Gen 6). Fantastic move and I'm glad it's stuck around three gens later, albeit as a TR in Gen 8.
Retaliate (BW1 gym exclusive, you get it on the Plasma Frigate much later in BW2) I think was a good move in concept. 70 BP for earlygame (speaking BW1, in BW2 you'd never use this over Return by that point lategame)
sounds like it'd be okay filler until Return until you realize that even to this day, the move is 5 PP, making it unreliable for routes. The damage doubling effect can be neat but I've never really tried it, and I doubt many people did when you have Return access at Nimbasa a couple towns later in BW1 and after 1 badge in BW1. Have fun teaching it when your life is so dull you consider using Patrat in BW1 (as unlike Llliipup it does not get Take Down at level 15).
Venoshock from Roxie in BW2 is okay, heck better than Retaliate. Only problem is again some of the newer Poison types (Venipede, Garbodor)
were physical, though I can definitely see Koffing and Roselia getting good use out of it. Pretty good move, though the bonus damage can be hard to trigger reliably outside of Roselia's Toxic Spikes (using Poison Gas / Toxic to trigger this for one foe is inefficient compared to just...using Venoshock twice).
Next up is...Struggle Bug.
In its debut generation, you'd never seriously teach this to a Bug type. 30 power, Special-based (when the new bugs back then were Leavanny, Scolipede, Crustle, Escavalier, Durant...most of them sans Volcarona and Accelgor were physical). Even then, Larvesta is infamous for being the textbook example of "use this postgame by simply catching Volcarona in BW1", unlike how you can catch one at level 35 in Black 2 maingame, and even then, you have free Red Shards to tutor Signal Beam, so Struggle Bug still sucks lol) and Shelmet is both suoer late in BW1, has a stupid trading method, and even IF you had the means to evolve it...you're better off with Karrablast (I used Escavalier in BW1 when testing for the list, it is mega slow but honestly really underrated in-game, trust me, tho early moves are rough).
BW2 fixed this by putting Shelmet and Karrablast on Route 6 near Driftveil but when was the last time you heard someone use Accelgor in-game outside of "lemme see what oddball mons I can use this time" kinda runs?
Gen VI fixed this by making it 50 BP and making Vivillon wreck with it but back in Gen V's heyday...yeah the Japanese name should have been "Player Opposition" (instead of "Insect Opposition.")
Volt Switch is great. Too bad the Gen V Electrics are nothing to really get excited over viability wise, with the possible exception of Joltik. Also awkward in-game despite good power because...it forces you to switch. Despite that though, solid movie and a cornerstone of competitive.
Bulldoze is a good move. No complaints here, learned by a good amount of non-Grounds too to my memory.
Acrobatics is a great move. Too bad this was the gen that made Lucky Egg a freebie, meaning that in reality despite having a good damage-doubling effect, you probably won't use it unless you have Archeops. Also UNFEZANT DOES NOT LEARN THIS WHY????
Frost Breath: Uh. Vanillite line has Ice Beam by this point (level 35, same as evolution), as does Crygonal (level 33). That leaves lol Beartic with lower-than-Probopass Special Attack. Gen VI again buffs this to 60 BP but...idk why you'd ever use this over Ice Beam.
Dragon Tail: yes it has good use in competitive. Too bad in-game it makes Drayden / Iris significantly less threatening (
HOW IN THE HECK DO YOU GIVE SOMEONE A DRAGON DANCE HAXORUS AS AN ACE AND NOT MAKE IT INTIMIDATING???). I don't see why you'd ever use this over Dragon Claw in-game ever.
Scald is a terrible move. I have no idea why they moved its location in USUM, it was underpowered as heck.
Looking back on these moves, I realize a lot of them get more mileage in competitive and about half of them ARE pretty usable which is great. I just think the bad ones (Struggle Bug and Frost Breath, with a dishonorable mention to Dragon Tail in-game) are some of the worst in the series.
Similar issues: Gen V Incinerate, Water Pulse being a TM post-Surf (Wallace/Juan and GSC / HGSS Misty say hi, thankfully ORAS replaced Water Pulse with Waterfall).
Also, for all the problems Gen VI had, Gym TM prizes were top notch consistently.